How to Make an Espresso? The Art of Making Coffee Cuisine

Espresso coffee is a precise art form of coffee making. There are several factors that must take place to make a quality cup of Espresso. First the fresh roasting of the coffee bean to bring out the truly gourmet coffee flavor that you expect. The grinding is the next procedure that must be done right in order to give you 20-25 seconds of extraction time. Espresso brewing requires the ground beans to be very fine in order to reach that perfect state for brewing. The next important step is the proper temperature of the filtered water that must be passed through the coffee at the specific pressure and timing that is critical to your espresso coffee.

The perfect espresso is created when:

Recipe directions: 1 ½ oz (45 ml) filtered water at the temperature of 195 oF (90oC) passes through ¼ - 1/3 oz (7-9 g) finely ground quality Espresso coffee. This water is forced through the fine coffee grounds by the espresso machine at 900 kilopascals atmospheric pressure (around 132 pounds/60kg per sq in/2.5cm2), with the water being in direct contact with the coffee for approximately 25 seconds.

What should your espresso taste like?

When you are ready to take a drink from your espresso cup, it should leave a pleasant not bitter aftertaste. The flavor should linger for about 10 minutes rolling into an almost nutty flavor.

The crown on your cup of Espresso

The topping on the espresso is know as "Crema", which is the floating dark golden cream free of any white or light brown patches. That is the crown of the perfect espresso coffee. The Crema is formed when the emulsified oils from the coffee are released (because of the high pressure that is put on the ground coffee beans) and mixed with the oxygen in the air. The resulting finish is perfect crema that floats on top of the espresso coffee.

How to Prepare Ogbono Soup

Ogbono soup is an African delicacy. The Ogbono is gotten from Wild mango kennel. After preparation it's eaten with either Eba(from garri-processed cassava), or Fufu (from cassava) or Amala (from dried unripe plantain or yam)

If properly prepared, it's a delicacy that can always make your meal worthwhile.

Ingredients/Recipes needed: (1) Ogbono (2) Okro (3) Palm Oil (4) Onion (5) Meat (6) Dried Fish (7) Stock fish (8) Dried grinded pepper. (9) Salt (10) Crayfish (11) Shrimps(dried or fresh) (12) Maggi cubes (13) Vegetable leaves

PREPARATION TECHNIQUE/PROCEDURE

STEPS 1.You first of all grind the Ogbono (wild Mango kernel) together with crayfish. The quantity should depend on the size of your cooking pot and an average number of people you want to serve. Also per boil your meat, slice your onions and vegetable leaves. STEP 2. You cut your Okro with knife or grater and soak your stock fish with warm water. This is to reduce the hardness of the stock fish before applying it to the soup. STEP 3. You pour Palm oil in a bowl and mix the grinded ogbono and crayfish together with it, and mix very well. STEP 4. You pour water in to your pot and allow boiling. Thereafter, you add the mixed palm oil, Ogbono and crayfish into the cooking pot. But please do not cover the boiling cooking pot after pouring the mixture; this is to allow the soup to have its elasticity nature. STEP 5. After 10minutes, apply your per boiled meat and sliced onion into the cooking pot. STEP 6. After 5minutes, apply your washed dried fish, stock fish,grinded dired pepper, salt, Shrimps, okro and magi cubes. And allow for another 10minutes on the fire. STEP 7. Add your vegetable leaves to it and just allow to cook for another 5 minutes and your soup is ready.

Written by Henry Okotoghaide